On this day: Robert Burns was born | King Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn were secretly married | Opportunity rover landed on the surface of Mars

Burns Night is celebrated on January 25th

1533: King Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn were secretly married by the Bishop of Lichfield – to become the parents of the future Queen Elizabeth I of England.

1817: First issue of The Scotsman was published by its founders, Charles Maclaren, William Ritchie and John MacDiarmid.

1919: League of Nations was founded.

1924: First Winter Olympics inaugurated at Chamonix in the French Alps.

1971: Idi Amin became president of Uganda, deposing Milton Obote while he was absent abroad.

1971: Charles Manson and others were found guilty of multiple murders in the United States.

1981: The Gang of Four – Roy Jenkins, Shirley Williams, David Owen and William Rodgers – announced the Limehouse Declaration, which called for a classless crusade for social justice. They were expelled from the Labour Party for forming a Council for Social Democracy.

1986: Voyager 2, sweeping to within 51,000 miles (81,000 km) of Uranus, discovered a tenth ring, and a 15th moon.

1989: Edwina Currie blamed incorrect reporting of what she said for the furore about salmonella in eggs.

1990: Forty-six people died in the worst storms in southern Britain since the hurricane of October, 1987: Gusts of up to 110 mph caused road and rail chaos.

1991: Saddam Hussein unleashed environmental disaster when he ordered the release of millions of gallons of crude oil into the sea from a Kuwaiti storage plant.

1995: Government ministers ordered a rethink of plans to axe most of the Anglo-Scottish night trains.

2003: A group of people left London for Baghdad to serve as human shields to prevent the US-led coalition troops from bombing certain locations.

2004: Opportunity rover landed on the surface of Mars.

2008: Scottish & Newcastle was taken over by Carlsberg and Heineken for £7.8bn.

2011: Revolution began in Egypt, with a series of street demonstrations, marches, rallies, acts of civil disobedience, riots, labour strikes and violent clashes.

2012: First Minister Alex Salmond set out the question he intended to ask voters in a referendum on Scottish independence. The SNP leader said Scots would be asked: “Do you agree that Scotland should be an independent country?” in a ballot he said would be held in 2014.